Disclaimer: Hey this is my first Newsie fanfiction since high school! So bear with me as I reminisce... I do not own Newsies, Disney does. I do own Taps, Cadence, Flame, Peach and the plot! Enjoy! Comments are welcomed! :)

***

Taps Riffwalk has been spending a lot of on the Brooklyn Bridge lately. She was torn between two worlds. She never used to be like that. She was quite content before the strike but now she was not so sure.

"Hey Taps." Jack Kelly called to her after finishing the morning pape. "Wanna grab lunch at Tibby's?" He kissed her on the lips after he asked.

"Sounds great hun." She smiled. Taps was so in love with him – or so she thought. The couple met up with a few of their friends at the restaurant including her sisters. "Hey girls!" she greeted Cadence, Flame, and Peach. "How was selling?"

"Great!" the second oldest, Flame responded then glanced at her boyfriend Racetrack Higgins. Everyone else replied and then ordered food.

"So babe you wanna go to a show tonight?" Jack asked her.

"That sounds fine." She smiled at him. The group finished up lunch and went to sell the afternoon edition before Jack and Taps headed to the show.

The next morning something drastic happened. The owners, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst raised the price of the paper from $0.50 per 100 to $0.60 per 100 pape. That was outrageous and no need to do such a thing!

"Babe, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know but nobody sells papes till they put the price back where it was." Jack told her.

"You mean like a strike?" David Jacobs, Jack's right-hand man asked. Jack agreed. "We can't strike. We'd be a bunch of angry kids with no money." But Jack's mind was made up! The Newsies were going on strike. Now they need to reorganize and gain support from all the other newsies. Jack, Boots and Davey were going to Brooklyn.

"Hey Taps you wanna come with me?" Jack asked her. Flame was headed to Midtown with Race while Cadence was going to the Bowery with her boyfriend Mush Meyers.

"Yes sure I will." He smiled knowing that her being by his side would make everything go smoother. They started on their journey and stepped onto the Brooklyn Bridge to make their way across the river.

"I've never been to Brooklyn, have you?" Dave asked.

"I spent a month there one night." Boots stated. Then him and Jack leaned over and screamed off the side of the bridge. David and Taps just laughed at them before they continued to see Spot.

The group of friends were not greeted very friendly down by the bay were Spot normally was located and soon stood eye to eye with the leader. Spot Conlon eyes immediately fell on Taps. He knew he wanted to with her but he saw that her hand was entwined with Jack's. He quickly snapped out of his trance when Jack spoke. Jack introduced David and then Taps before telling him all about the strike.

"That's not good enough Jacky-boy. You've gotta show me." Spot concluded. The friends knew that he wasn't going to change his mind so they turned to leave. Taps smiled and waved goodbye to him. She had no idea what that did to Spot but she would soon find out.

A couple days later Taps was sitting on the rooftop gazing at the stars; one of her favorite places to be when she is by herself. They still haven't heard from Spot about supporting them in their strike. Then Jack came up and sat with her.

"Hey I was thinking," she started. "Maybe I could go to Brooklyn tomorrow to talk to Spot."

"By yourself?"

"Yes, I mean what if he didn't like the 4 against 1 thing. Maybe if he had some one -on-one time it could change his mind, ya know?" Jack pondered this for a min. His girl came up with good ideas and this could work.

"Alright sounds like a plan." He smiled and kissed her full lips.

"Great! I'll leave first thing in the morning." The couple went inside and crawled into bed.

By mid-morning, Taps was in Brooklyn. She tried to remember exactly which way they went but was failing. She was also getting eyed by all the men, who were making her very uncomfortable. Finally, she noticed the pier where Spot was perched above. Unfortunately he was not there. 'He must be selling. I'll just wait.' She thought and sat down. No sooner did she sit down, her eyelids become heavy and she lay down on the pier falling asleep. When she woke up there were piercing blue eyes looking down at her.

"Taps?" Spot asked not believing he had her in his bed.

"Hey Spot." She smiled, and then took in her surroundings. "Why am I in your bed?"

"Well I found you sleeping and did not want to wake you because you looked so peaceful so I just brought you back here." He explained.

"Ah, thank you." She sat up fully inches from his face. It took all that he had not to kiss her.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh right- that's the whole reason I came." She slid back on the bed, "I came to talk about the strike." She smiled. Damn, he thought she wanted something else.

"What about it?"

"Will you join?"

"I said only if you show me what it takes and I mean it."

"Well there must be something I could do?" she asked him.

"Actually yea." This was his moment. Before she could reply he kissed her. And to his surprise she kissed back.

"Wait, what are you doing?" she pushed him away. "You know I have Jack."

"But Taps, I can't stop thinking about you." He trailed off.

"And you want me to drop Jack and go out with you?"

"Yes." He replied.

"Not happening." He didn't care. He knew she liked the kiss so he did it again. Taps never felt anything like that. He kissed very differently than Jack. She hated to admit it but she liked it. "Spot stop!" he gave her a quizzical look. "We can't."

"I'm better than him."

"Prove it." Was the last thing she said before she jumped off of his bed and made her way back to Manhattan.

It was mid-afternoon when she was back in Jack's arms.

"No luck. I'm sorry."

"At least you tried, sweetie." Jack kissed her on the lips and all she could think about was Spot.